William J. Obanhein (October 19, 1924 – September 11, 1994), also known as Officer Obie, was the chief of police for the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Obanhein was the "Officer Obie" mentioned in Arlo Guthrie's 1967 talking blues song "Alice's Restaurant".
[5] Obanhein posed for Norman Rockwell (himself a resident of Stockbridge) for a handful of sketches, including the 1959 black-and-white sketch Policeman With Boys, which was used in nationwide advertisements for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual).
[7] Obanhein also served as a model for Rockwell's illustration of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy for a 1961 cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
[8] He is sometimes mistaken (including on Guthrie's website) for the officer who posed for Rockwell's painting The Runaway, which appeared on a 1958 cover of The Saturday Evening Post; this was not Obanhein but Massachusetts state trooper Richard Clemens,[9] and the painting was instead set at Joe's Diner in Lee, Massachusetts, not in Stockbridge.